University Press Releases

Santa Clara University's Solar Decathlon 2013 Team to Present New Designs of Their Solar House

Tuesday, May. 1, 2012

SANTA CLARA, Calif., May 1, 2012—Santa Clara University’s Solar Decathlon 2013 team will unveil the latest plans for its custom-designed solar home to the U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon director visiting from Washington, D.C., on Tuesday, May 8 from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m.

The Energy Department’s Richard King is visiting Santa Clara University as his first stop in California, where four collegiate teams have been chosen to participate in the competition.

Every two years, the Solar Decathlon determines which of 20 teams can design and build the most beautiful, energy-efficient, solar-powered house.

This is Santa Clara’s third time in the competition. The school won third place in 2007 and 2009. Faculty and students decided to skip 2011 to recharge and prepare for the 2013 decathlon. Now that they’re in, they’re moving full steam ahead with an entirely new look, features, and new goal.

“We’re focusing on creating a home that’s affordable for more families,” says Jake Gallau, student project manager for Team Santa Clara. “With energy costs skyrocketing across the country, we want to show the world that it doesn’t take much to design and build a solar-powered home that looks good and runs efficiently.”

Without revealing too much, the students say they transformed their plans that they submitted to the DOE last month into something that’s striking, modern, and yet functional.

“The design takes advantage of the outdoor space without compromising its aesthetics,” says Jay Dubashi, assistant student project manager for the Santa Clara team. “In fact, the new design will somewhat mask the photovoltaic panels so that they’re not as prominent as they have been in all the homes from previous competitions.”

The Solar Decathlon takes places Oct. 3-13, 2013 at the Orange County Great Park in Irvine, Calif. However, all students must build their homes on their own campuses, dismantle it, ship it to the competition site, rebuild it, and then operate it for the jurors and the public.

King, faculty, and students will be available for media interviews on Tuesday, May 8 from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m.

About Santa Clara UniversitySanta Clara University, a comprehensive Jesuit, Catholic university located 40 miles south of San Francisco in California’s Silicon Valley, offers its more than 8,800 students rigorous undergraduate curricula in arts and sciences, business, theology, and engineering, plus master’s and law degrees and engineering Ph.D.s. Distinguished nationally by one of the highest graduation rates among all U.S. master’s universities, California’s oldest operating higher-education institution demonstrates faith-inspired values of ethics and social justice. For more information, see www.scu.edu.